Denounce the attack on the Revolution Books table at Oscar Grant Plaza

by Rafael and Opi
Wednesday May 2nd, 2012 10:47 AM

Denounce the attack on the Revolution Books table at Oscar Grant Plaza

Much love to the fighters and dreamers who came out into the streets of Oakland for May Day 2012. Overall, it was a beautiful day. But something needs to be said about the fucked up incident at our table at Oscar Grant Plaza.

The Revolution Books table -- with copies of Revolution Newspaper, BAsics by Bob Avakian the chairman of the RCP and other revolutionary literature -- was attacked by people, claiming to be radicals of some kind, who threw water all over it. When we blocked them from attacking our table, we were physically assaulted. A female volunteer with our table was hit by 2 men and a woman and knocked to the ground.

This unprovoked physical attack on the Revolution Books table and the people doing political outreach there should not be tolerated by the Occupy movement, or by anyone upholding basic standards for how people should deal with each other. This kind of behavior is harmful and dangerous. In fact, it is straight up counter-revolutionary. It is the opposite of the kind of serious engagement and principled debate over differences that is urgently needed. Further, the atmosphere where such attacks are tolerated, and even fostered by rumor mongering and gossip about organizations and leaders, is an atmosphere that enables the FBI and other agents of repression to carry out attacks and even worse against revolutionaries and the broader movement of resistance. If you don't know about COINTELPRO --the lies and ad-hominem attacks and personal animosity among individuals that was used by the government to foment divisions, to create a climate where people like Malcolm X and Bunchy Carter could be assassinated and revolutionary organizations like the Panthers destroyed -- you should look into it. People need to understand that this kind of unpricipled behavior can only aid the enemy.

In this case, many people in Occupy came forward to denounce the attack on the Revolution Books table, and some anarchists also came forward afterward to make it clear that despite their serious disagreements with the politics of revolutionary communism and Bob Avakian, they did not agree with the physical attack on us.

We also want to make clear that this incident in no way stopped us from doing what we set out to do on May Day -- to unite with and help strengthen the Occupy movement, to build an Internationalist contingent within the March for Dignity and Resistance -- bringing out the message "Internationalism: the whole world comes first" and "American Lives are not more important than other people's lives" -- and to reach out to and talk to many many people about Bob Avakian, and raise funds to make his new synthesis of communism a part of the debate and struggle throughout society.